The Echoing Green

A recreation of a young girl's emotional life, in the story of Jemmie, for whom everything is terribly intense, the "home one" in the Hand family, who takes their hard lines tragically. She loved Poppa, but hated his drinking and shouting; she cherished but didn't particularly care for Momma, who lived on past glories, but who faced realities when it came to a showdown; she put up with her half-known older sisters, and her two brothers. But always she was the one apart, adoring her friend next door, dreading her condemnation when the Hands moved to a bleak room back of the store, living on dreams of the days when she would conquer poverty with her writing. At the close, responsibilities shed, we see Jemmie facing hope and a future in New York. Earmarks of autobiographical recapturing of mood and sensitive adolescent awakening, of ecstasies, humiliation, despair -- and hope.